


Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken

by AsheTarasovich (natalieashe)



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Established James Bond/Q/Alec Trevelyan, Gen, Supportive R, Trans Character, Valuing People, Workplace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25070137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natalieashe/pseuds/AsheTarasovich
Summary: Q-branch has a new recruit.“If I could give you one piece of advice?” R continued.  “You are talented, gifted even.  You have to be to have made it this far because Q is the toughest Head in Six when it comes to selecting his team.  People will listen to you if you speak up and share your ideas, so believe in your abilities.   But most importantly, be yourself!  You won’t have time around here to be anyone else.”
Relationships: James Bond/Q/Alec Trevelyan, Q & R (James Bond)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92
Collections: 007 Fest Fancreations





	Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Trans character day, 007 Fest 2020

“God, I hate this,” Q groaned, rubbing his hands over his face and pressing the heels of his palms over his closed eyelids. “If you really loved me you’d make the decision for me.”

“That might work with Alec or James, but you’re stuck with me, and I don’t get paid enough to listen to you whine about my choice for the next six months.” R shoved her hair off her brow and exhaled noisily. It was well after 8, and they’d been at this for over an hour already thanks to Q’s hatred of all things ‘bollocksy HR’.

“Aha!” Q pounced. “So you  _ have _ made a choice. Tell me!”

“Not a chance, Quartermaster.” She pushed the pile of resumes she had placed to her right across his desk. “But let’s just say I wouldn’t disagree with any of these.”

“Why do we have to take an intern anyway?” Q grumbled. “It’s not like any of us have the spare capacity to train them in any meaningful way in six months.”

R sighed deeply. They’d had this conversation at least three times already, and that was only today. It had been on Q’s bitch list for over a no week, ever since the department heads had approved the idea in his absence. 006 would get it in the arse for his escapade to a weapons warehouse full of primed explosives that caused Q to miss the meeting.

“I knew I should have sent you in my place. What’s the point of having a deputy if I can’t order you to do the stuff I don’t want to do?” Q huffed.

“Try it, and I resign on the spot,” she chuckled. “And who is it that complains about the lack of suitable candidates when we need to appoint? Internships let us see who might be cut out for this life without any of the risk.”

“Fine! But I refuse to babysit. That is your job.” He fanned out the resumes - there were only three - and stabbed a finger at the top one. He was so done with this task. “This one!”

“Sure? Brilliant! I’ll get on to HR in the morning.”

——

Unfortunately for Jay, the intern, his start date in Q Branch fell right in the middle of a hellish bundle of missions that kept the Quartermaster from any kind of welcome other than a brief nod and a distracted wave of his hand.

“Don’t worry that his greeting lacks warmth,” R reassured. “At times like this it pays NOT to be noticed. You learn quickly to appear when he needs you and take cover when agents in the field do idiotic things. 006 and 007 are the worst culprits. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

R chatted as they made a tour of the branch, stopping regularly to make introductions and to explain what each team was responsible for. Jay was awkward and economical with his replies, saying just enough not to appear rude but offering no additional information about himself. 

Nerves, and youth, could turn even the most verbose person monosyllabic, R reminded herself. The sheer scale of the work they did from the basement had most new recruits in awe until they found their feet. 

But this was something more than simple shyness. The slouched posture. The brief answers rattled out, eye contact almost non-existent. Jay was uncomfortable being in the department, in stark contrast to the enthusiastic application he had made for the post.

In the small kitchen area, R made tea. “I think you’re going to fit right in here.”

“Really? I wasn’t sure if I...” suddenly the floodgates opened and the words tumbled forth. “I just really need this opportunity to be taken seriously, and show the Quartermaster what I can do! Q-branch was my first choice of position. My  _ only _ choice!”

“Well we’re slightly biased, but we all know our department is the best.”

“It’s so much more than that. Q is a  _ legend _ . He is so young but he gets respect. I wanted to prove to him that I’m more than just... this!” He gestured at himself vaguely.

R appraised him with a quizzical smile. He had unfurled somewhat in his enthusiastic praise of Q. The eagerness that had been so apparent in his Personal Statement bloomed, and he seemed to stand taller because of it.

“I read your paper on the use of injectable nanotechnology to remotely control blood clotting, and how that could be used to tend to injuries remotely for military personnel or agents in the field. Fascinating stuff. I know Q was impressed.”

“One day it will be Science Fact, not Fiction.”

“I’ve seen a lot of things I thought were impossible come into being in our R&D teams. I think you’re probably right.” 

R smiled and offered him a home-baked biscuit . “Never a shortage of baked goods to share. One of the perks of the job.” 

He bit into it and made an appreciative noise.

“If I could give you one piece of advice?” R continued. “You are talented, gifted even. You have to be to have made it this far because Q is the toughest Head in Six when it comes to selecting his team. People will listen to you if you speak up and share your ideas, so believe in your abilities. But most importantly, be yourself! You won’t have time around here to be anyone else.”

He frowned, obviously not understanding, but rather than explain she handed him a mug of tea and suggested they move to the back of the team room to observe Q at work.

——-

Q was exhausted, running on strong black coffee and anything sugary he could lay his hands on. Both Alec and James were out, one in Japan, the other in South Africa. Neither of them were where they were supposed to be. Alec by choice. James, by accident. Q was furious with them both.

“006! Will you listen to instructions for once in your life?! I told you not to go after Blue Rooster until I updated you. I had Intel to share that would have given you a far less hazardous opportunity to intercept, and you would not now be careering down a mountain in a vehicle with a damaged braking system!”

“Hold off on the lecture, Q, and maybe try to hack the bloody on board computer?” Alec growled as he concentrated on steering the car along the route. “Go easy on the resistance. I don’t want to find myself plastered over the windscreen.”

“I  _ have _ driven a car before!” 

“My guess is you were behind the fucking wheel and not several thousand miles away!”

“Obviously! Damn..!! You couldn’t steal something more modern? This operating system is older than you are!”

A piercing grind of metal on metal had Alec cursing up a storm. In Q’s other ear James ran and panted over a second audio feed. “Bit of an issue, Q” Bond gasped.

“Not right now, Bond. 006 is in a bit of a fix.”

“Got 5 on my tail. Lost my primary weapon, backup jammed. Losing a bit of blood...”

“What?! You’ve been hit? How bad?” 

Q looked around frantically for R, or any other handler who might have the skills to take over Alec. At least Alec had some  _ small _ amount of control of direction in his situation. 

“Bad enough.”

“Where the hell is everyone? Someone take over from me!”

“Q?” Alec reminded Q he was still in peril. “Progress report?”

“Your destiny is in your own hands for the moment, 006. 007 has a situation!”

“For fucks sake, Q! Hand me over to someone!! And tell James if we both get back alive, I’m going to kill him.”

“Noted. I am...”

“Quartermaster?” An apologetic voice spoke at his elbow. 

Q sucked in a breath and rounded on the interruption, hands thrown up in exasperation, forehead creased with anxiety. He blinked at the newcomer, trying to place him. “Oh! Intern! Bit busy right now.”

“Yes sir, I’ve been observing. I can take over 006. I have experience of some of these older systems. A hobby...”

Q’s gaze narrowed. The kid was how old? 21? 22? He’d only been in the department a handful of weeks. R said good things, but...

“I can do it!” He stared back at Q with quiet confidence. “007, I  _ can’t _ assist, but  _ you _ can.”

Christ! Handing any double O over to an untried newbie was unthinkable but what choice did he have? This late, at change of shift, bodies were thin on the ground. He moved aside fractionally allowing the slim young man to slide into place in front of his keyboard.

“Fine! I’ll keep comms. You, do your thing.” Q decided some detail was best kept from Alec. “006, I’ve got someone working on your vexing problem. Do try not to leave the road in the meantime. 007’s pickle has become rather more sour.”

——

Much later, when Alec was in a hotel bar on his third stiff drink, and James was in the hands of a field office medic, Q retired to his office. He slumped into his chair and rubbed his hands over his face, slapping his cheeks lightly to try to revive himself enough to go home. The sofa in the corner looked awfully tempting, but the nagging ache in his lower back begged for a chance to sprawl across their huge bed, uncrushed. 

A series of small thuds on his door announced a visitor. Jay nudged again with his boot when Q didn’t acknowledge him, hands too full of steaming mugs to knock properly.

“May I come in?” He hesitated at the threshold waiting for an invitation. 

Q waved a tired hand at the chair opposite and tried to stifle a yawn. “Sure.”

“I made tea.” Jay clutched his own mug in front of his chest like a shield and fidgeted nervously while Q took a sip. Q was pleasantly surprised to find it was above acceptable. “I thought I should probably introduce myself properly. You’ve been so busy and...”

“I’m sorry. Busy doesn’t excuse my unprofessionalism. We should have met long before now, but I tend to leave staff supervision and other matters to R, unless there are problems.”

“I understand. I heard you were tough on new recruits to discover if you wanted to keep them. I thought perhaps you had made up your mind already that I wasn’t a good fit.”

Q looked at the intern in genuine astonishment. “I let you take over a double o mission, just on your word that you could break into that car’s system. You stepped up to take control of a threatening situation, calmly and confidently, and if it wasn’t for you, 006 would be a mangled mess right now! I think it’s fairly obvious that I consider you competent and worthy of your placement here.”

Jay blushed and stared into his mug. “I’ve never really felt comfortable enough anywhere to volunteer like that. I surprised myself.”

“Shocked me, in a good way! I heard Alec offer to buy you a drink when he returns. I’ll bloody make sure you get one.” Q couldn’t contain his next yawn. “Ugh sorry. I should head home. You too.”

Jay readied himself to leave, but paused at the door when Q said his name. 

“There’s a quality, shared by most of Q-branch, that attracts some extraordinary talent to our teams, rather than losing them to business or industry.”

“Oh?”

“In one way or another, we’re all misfits in the world outside. Some more obviously than others.” Q nodded at Jay, and smiled, relieved when a ghost of a smile tugged Jay’s mouth upwards. “But down here, our uniqueness is one of the factors that gives us our overall strength as a unit. We don’t need to be anything other than we are. We are needed and appreciated for what we can do. Does that make sense?”

Jay nodded. “I guess.”

“Excellent. Then I only have one further question before we both head home for a rest. What are your pronouns?”

Jay’s worried expression was instantly replaced with a grin. “He/him/his. Thanks for asking.”  
  
“No problem. Now, off you pop.”  


  
  



End file.
